John Kennedy

Produced by: Frui.on Business Development AB “ Enchantment is all about changing people’s hearts, minds and ac.ons because you provide them a vision or a way to do things be@er. The difference between enchantment and simple sales is that with enchantment you have the other person’s best interests at heart, too. - Guy Kawasaki L et’s be honest why don’t customers buy? Normally it’s a few reasons: 1. They do not recognise that they have a problem 2. or that they need to take any acBon, 3. or they do not believe or trust that your soluBon will work Trying to lead an uncertain customer through the sales funnel, typically ends up with a failure, in either a delayed or defeated selling process. Prematurely presenBng a soluBon to a customer who does not idenBfy with the problem is a recipe for disaster. We hope with the following Bps & tricks you will find what works best for you, and if you don’t shorten the sales cycle then at least you will learn more about your own sales processes and customers. Kennedy Andersson AB www.kennedyandersson.com IntroducBon W e have worked with a number of clients on finding ways to shorten the sales cycle with Inbound MarkeBng: In summary what has worked best for us is: 1. Engage earlier in the process with customers by providing useful informaBon to establish credibility 2. Build trust by providing value rather than always selling 3. Be visible and proacBve online when they are searching using your content to aMract them 4. Think about your offering as a soluBon to a problem 5. Give thought to the language that they would use to search on the problem 6. Align markeBng messages with the buyers journey 7. Try to remain “top of mind” when they are at the decision making stage by establishing a role as “thought leader” in your sector or business segment If you conBnue to communicate with a product-centric approach to the buyer, there is a risk of becoming irrelevant and dropping off the radar of buyers. www.kennedyandersson.com So how do you shorten the sales cycle? There are typically a number of obstacles on trying to shorten the sales cycle: The decision challenge – ask yourself, does the buyer have a full and robust decision making process in place to know how to evaluate what you are offering? The Change process – does your company have a methodology of making it a painless decision for the buyer? It is common to have customers that do not buy because they are concerned about the risks associated with change. The final challenge is value – are you able to support the buyer in their quest to measure and show the impact of your soluBon, the added value that it drives, the revenue that you will generate, transparency of costs, etc? This guide contains Bps & tricks for different aspects of how to shorten the sales cycle to help bolster your conversion rates to reach those ever so important revenue targets. www.kennedyandersson.com x19 ways to shorten your sales cycle 1) Engage early • • • • Develop a buyer persona of your customers so that you understand more about the challenges that they face, their search behaviour and what they value most Make sure that you are helping your prospecBve customers build awareness in what you offer by communicaBng early on in their buying cycle Its very important that your messages reflect at what stage the buyer is at, for example not trying to sell to a customer when they are at a stage where they are just trying to understand the problem that they are facing Use the opportunity at the early stages of the relaBonship to show that your company has a level of experBse and is becoming the natural “go to” resource for any company that wants to find out more about a parBcular issue 2) Offer informaBon resources • • • Give informaBon away for free, your currency should be the value you get from the email addresses you generate and the interacBon with those that read your educaBonal resources The type and format of informaBon that you offer should be dictated by the customer and at what stage they are within the ”sales funnel” Target the informaBon for buyers to help them get the most out of any interacBon, maybe they just need to clarify that they have an issue rather than immediately try and solve what you think is the problem 3) Establish credibility • • Using an educaBon based approach to your markeBng will establish credibility because you are giving rather than taking Opening up the treasure trove of your past experiences will confirm your experBse 4) Stay “top of mind” online • • Use your social media skills, blog like a professional and maintain a fresh and easy to follow website to keep your brand front of mind and on the Bp of the tongue It does not pay to conBnually try to make noise, it is beMer to invest in a profile that builds slowly with the trust of the customers www.kennedyandersson.com x19 ways to shorten your sales cycle 5) Understand the problems your customers are facing • • • Provide resources that will help your customers discover how to meet their objecBves Reflect on the types of problems that your customers may be having How does your offering address their issues? 6) Simplify your approach • • Give thought to the language that you use throughout your content markeBng strategy Focus on your use of keywords, make sure you are consistently using the same approach across all your customer touch points 7) Gives customers a reason to return • • By providing educaBonal material and the benefit of your experience Create a wealth of entertaining and easy to absorb content 8) Engage in social media conversaBons to show your target audience the value you drive • • Interact online with your customers to offer answers to their quesBons Develop a role within online communiBes and special interest groups to show your level of experBse 9) ConBnually evaluate your content, markeBng acBviBes, and sales approach, etc. • Make adjustments to your content to reflect customer demands • Stay on trend how you use terminology and expert insights in a concise way 10) Encourage more collaboraBon across your organisaBon to learn about the customer • • • Work together with all those that have a role that enjoys customer contact Think of Sales & MarkeBng as SmarkeBng, bring together the best of both worlds Use customer surveys to develop further knowledge of the key customer issues www.kennedyandersson.com x19 ways to shorten your sales cycle 11) Yes, offer a test drive or a customised demonstraBon • When the Bme is right a free trial can work wonders for those customers that want to experience the real thing 12) Provide client references • • TesBmonials and recommendaBons are a way to make your customers feel at ease with decision making Always have available case studies that are relevant to your customers needs 13) Offer a phased approach to divide a potenBal project into phases • • Build trust through the successful delivery of project phases Look at the opportuniBes as a marathon rather than a sprint to build up your experBse so that you do not over promise 14) IdenBfy your target audience carefully • • Do be creaBve when you are making a buyer persona ConBnue to monitor how your persona behaves and reacts to your messages 15) OpBmise your website to encourage customers to self-educate and self-qualify what you have on offer • • A robust SEO strategy will help with the right keywords and opBmisaBon to aMract your target customer By conBnually updaBng your content you will build an educaBonal asset that visitors to your site will appreciate 16) Create compelling informaBon that draws the B2B customer to your website • • “Content is king”, certainly for now the magnet that will aMract visitors to your website will be the quality of the content you source MarkeBng content can come in all shapes and sizes, words and pictures and should be produced with the customer in mind www.kennedyandersson.com x19 ways to shorten your sales cycle 17) Establish a lead qualificaBon process • • Once the leads start rolling in how will you manage them? Do you have a lead scoring process in place? 18) Align markeBng messages with the buyer’s journey • • Engage with your audience throughout the different stages recognising the various stages of their journey Develop a composite view of all your customers to be able to get a clear picture of the buying process 19) Add structure to your sales process • Work through with your sales team their view of the sales funnel, what they think are the “hot buMons” of the buyers Plus x1 Bonus 20) Keep it simple • • • • • Don’t get lost in the details Know exactly what you as an organisaBon are sekng out to achieve Make sure that the sales process follows the core brand values of your company Make sure that your brand values are clear and differenBated Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” – important words at the beginning of a project to make sure things run smoothly www.kennedyandersson.com Conclusion Inbound MarkeBng is all about aMracBng customers leads to you. The beMer you understand the issues that your customers are trying to address the more effecBve you are going to be in creaBng products and services to meet those demands. Shortening the sales cycle is one way in which Inbound MarkeBng can help you improve the number of leads you receive, their quality and the revenue generaBng opportunity they bring. www.kennedyandersson.com In Summary x19 Bps & tricks for shortening the sales cycle 1. Engage early 11. Yes, offer a test drive 2. Offer informaBon resources 12. Provide client references 3. Establish credibility 14. IdenBfy your target audience 4. Stay ”top of mind” online 13. Offer a phased approach 5. Understand your customers problems 15. OpBmise your website 6. Simplify your approach 17. Lead qualificaBon process 7. Give customers a reason to return 18. Align markeBng messages with the Buyer’s journey 8. Engage in social media 19. Add structure to your sales process 9. ConBnually evaluate what you do 16. Create compelling content 10. Encourage internal collaboraBon www.kennedyandersson.com About us. Kennedy Andersson is an Inbound MarkeBng agency with offices in Örebro and Stockholm, Sweden. We combine strategic planning and compelling ideas with the inbound markeBng methodology. We specialise in the business-to-business (B2B) segment where we have a combined 50 years of pracBcal business experience. The goal of Kennedy Andersson is to help companies grow, understand their pain and provide an affordable and successful soluBon. We exist to provide a cost effecBve, easy to apply and successful approach to growing sales in the B2B segment and we could not do that without the help of HubSpot. John Kennedy CEO Kennedy Andersson AB- www.kennedyandersson.com Thanks for reading! We hope you can take something away from this guide to apply to your own processes. So, good luck closing those sales! And don’t forget to share! If you want more great sales quotes try www.salesforce.com Or click the image opposite. A PublicaBon of Kennedy Andersson AB.